THE ECCLESIASTICAL SEALS OP CORNWALL. 



Br THE Rev. W. IAGO, B.A., "Westheath, Bodmin. Member of the Council of the Soyal 

 Institution of Cornwall, and an Hon. Sec. for Cornwall of the Society of Antiquaries, London. 



Ecclesiastical Seals are so suggestive of the history of the 

 Church, its orders and organizations which gave them origin, 

 that some observations respecting that history may suitably 

 precede an account of the Seals themselves. 



The rise and establishment, amongst us, of an Ecclesiastical 

 power for good, cannot but claim our earnest attention. 



Investigations shew that its development, in this western 

 region, has occupied considerably more than a thousand years, 

 and during that period it has passed through many phases. 



This long extent of time leads the mind, from the present, 

 back to the era when the Christian system itself had only just 

 begun — the date of its actual commencement being well ex- 

 pressed in those very familiar but solemn words " Imp er ante 

 Augusto, natus est Christus ; Imperante Tiberio crucifixus ! " 

 Let us start, then, from that point. 



Heathen Eome had been enforcing its authority upon most of 

 the countries within its reach. 



It had intruded into Palestine, in the east, and into Britain, 

 in the west. 



In Judea its executive, influenced in the first instance by 

 prejudiced Jews, slew, near the walls of Jerusalem, the Holy 

 Founder of our Faith, and soon afterwards the Eoman forces 

 proceeded to scatter the whole Jewish nation. 



Many christians, jews, and heathens, who had beheld the 

 scene on Mount Calvary, must have been living when the im- 

 perial warriors destroyed Jerusalem. Judgment was swift. 

 That generation did not pass away till both those events had 

 been fulfilled. 



Jerusalem was overthrown and its Temple burnt, A.D. 70, 

 Vespasian being emperor, Titus — his son and general — com- 

 manding the troops. 



But at that very time, i.e., during the first century, and also 

 in the next few centuries, Eoman soldiers and merchants from 



